A special morning glory

Sprinklers were in full spray and maintenance workers had the motors churning and the blades moving. It was just past 6 a.m. and the final day of the Deutsche Bank Championship was at its quietest.

Which is why Jerry Kelly, who was headed to the locker room to prepare for an early tee time, could only laugh.

"There are no golf stories this time of day," said Kelly.

I would respectfully disagree. Mornings tell vibrant stories about a production as impressive as what unfolded for the fifth straight Labor Day weekend at TPC Boston in Norton.

It is just before dawn when the course is prepared by folks who work diligently and with too little fanfare. And it is just before dawn when hundreds of volunteers, crucial to the success of the tournament, load onto shuttle buses to report to their appointed stations, none of them wanting anything more than to be part of it all. So, too, can you talk with caddies who offer flavor and insight to the game.

Shortly after laughing along with Kelly, an image popped into view that validated my faith in early arrivals to golf tournaments. The sight of D.J. Gregory made me smile.

He had been at the Deutsche Bank Championship each of the first three days, but it took me until Round 4 to connect the dots. Gregory had come to my attention in March while at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla. He had walked all 72 holes while following Aaron Baddeley those four days. Talk about inspiration.

Gregory, you see, has cerebral palsy and walks with the aid of a cane.

Offer him an ounce of pity and the guess is, he'd use that cane to take a swing at you.

"He doesn't feel sorry for himself, not at all," said Tim Herron, who was the focus of Gregory's attention for most of this year's Deutsche Bank. And since Herron went off alongside Justin Leonard at 7:45 a.m. for the final round, there was Gregory pushing forward bright and early, not the least bit overwhelmed by the long walk that TPC Boston presents.

Like a lot of his colleagues within the ropes of PGA Tour life, Herron burns inside when things don't go well, so being introduced to Gregory and watching the young man from Savannah, Ga., push himself around TPC Boston for four days was revealing.

"He lives life, man," said Herron. "You can learn from a guy like that. You tell yourself, 'Hey, it's not that bad out here.' "

It occurred to me that Gregory in Orlando had mentioned an idea for a book, which had grown out of his love of golf and attending tournaments, as many as seven or eight a year. The idea has taken off. Having been befriended by Jim Nantz and the CBS crew, Gregory was put in touch with PGA Tour officials and he has made a serious pitch to write about what it's like to be a spectator.

"I'd like to go to every PGA Tour event next year," said Gregory, his passion and energy boundless, "and write about tournaments, interacting with players and fans and volunteers."

Jeff Sluman is the first player Gregory became friendly with and Baddeley was next. He followed Herron this past week and was blown away by how the player and his caddie, Scott Steele, treated him. At one point Herron and Steele were hopping in for one of the long shuttle rides they receive at TPC Boston when they realized Gregory was nearby, pushing onward.

"You're coming with us," said Steele, and by tournament's end, they were good friends.

That's why Gregory is sure he has the makings of a fun book, "because the players have been great to me and I've met great people."

It was lunch time and TPC Boston was bustling with people whose day was just starting. The assumption was, the day was at an end for Gregory after walking 18 holes with Herron. But he shook his head.

"I'll walk 18 with Aaron this afternoon," he said.

Well, we can just rock on

Once upon a time, when most TVs offered only black-and-white shows and a half-dozen channels, "F Troop" made us laugh with lines like: "Take a left at the rock that looks like a bear." Well, after six days of walking the sprawling layout of TPC Boston, there was a distinct reminder of those words, because you could easily be directed to walk past "the rock that looks like a well."

It was the gurgling noise while standing near a rock in the woods between the first and second holes that prompted a query to superintendent Tom Brodeur, who revealed that the rock wasn't really a rock.

"It's a three-piece cement rock we had made by a guy in Worcester," said Brodeur. "It's pretty hilarious."

Brodeur had these "fake rocks" made to cover several wells that stuck out. These wells are important to courses, but you don't necessarily like to look at them. So Brodeur slipped the rocks (made of light cement) over the well heads at three locations - the spot to the left of the first fairway, and at the eighth and 10th holes.

The tops of the rocks can be pushed back to get at the wells, but when they're in place, you'd hardly know they were fake.

Not that any of the fake rocks were in play, but Brodeur said that PGA Tour rules officials actually had to acknowledge them in the local rules sheet. They were duly noted as movable objects as opposed to the large rocks that looked like rocks and actually were rocks.

This go-round, the match favors US

It hasn't meant much in the recent Ryder Cups and it probably won't at this month's Presidents Cup, but if you consider current form, you'd have to say the United States is favored. That's right, the Americans, even though they've fumbled team competition of late.

This International team is considered the deepest and most talented of the three sides who play in these events (Europeans in Ryder, United States in both Ryder and Presidents), but two of its four horses, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen, have been playing poorly of late. Goosen hasn't won in 2007 and has finished in the top 10 just once on the PGA Tour.

Stuart Appleby has missed the cut in five of his last nine starts; and since his triumph at the US Open, Angel Cabrera has played 16 PGA Tour rounds in 28 over with two missed cuts and a best finish of T-23.

Nick O'Hern? He's 45 over in his last 18 rounds on the PGA Tour and has missed the cut in four of six starts.

Conversely, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are playing as well as they have all season, and the same goes for Steve Stricker, Woody Austin, Lucas Glover, Scott Verplank, and Hunter Mahan. Jim Furyk hasn't been his best, but he hasn't been struggling. Charles Howell had a rough summer, but seems to be playing better, Stewart Cink is pretty much a reliable entry, and so is Zach Johnson.

That leaves David Toms as the only one who seems to be fighting the game. But as a veteran of these matches, you'd have to like the chances of his turning it around, so long as his health isn't an issue.

All of which means what? Probably not much, because as captain Jack Nicklaus said, "That's why you play the matches."

Etc.

Mark of success
As younger and fitter players beg out of the PGA Tour playoff tournaments, 47-year-old Mark Calcavecchia chugs along. Now in his 26th season, Calcavecchia rode into the FedEx Cup playoffs in 20th place and currently sits 15th. He's a long shot to win the whole thing, but with spots into this week's BMW Championship and next week's Tour Championship locked up, Calcavecchia will have played in all four. "I don't mind. If you're playing good, it's fine," said Calcavecchia, who earlier this season earned his 13th PGA Tour win. Just don't suggest he had a hand in setting up the venues for this inaugural playoff series. "I've never played any good at Cog Hill [BMW Championship]. I've never played [TPC Boston] before and I've never played any good at Westchester [Barclays], either. And I don't even like East Lake [Tour Championship]. I've never played any good there, either. I don't like all four courses we're playing. They didn't ask me for my input on what courses we should be playing for this thing."

High on numbers
Ah, numbers. They are at the heart of any round of golf and when you have four straight days of competition, you uncover a long list of intriguing numbers. A sampling from the fifth Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston:

It was the third time in five years that the winning score was 268.

When Mike Weir made his 12th birdie in 34 holes late Saturday, he was 11 under and leading the championship by two. But he went bogey-bogey on his last two holes that day, setting in motion a free fall. The lefthander played his final 38 holes in 7 over and plunged into a share of 30th.

One of the leaders at 9 under through two rounds was Rich Beem, who made just four bogeys in the first 36 holes. He made eight bogeys and two doubles over the next 36 and fell to 4 under and T-30.

Weir was one of those who handled the mystery of the 298-yard, par-4 fourth, however. He and Geoff Ogilvy birdied it all four days. Three others also played it in 4 under thanks to an eagle and two birdies - Charlie Wi and Trevor Immelman.

The hole did confound some. Tom Pernice played it in 3 over, and three others - Rocco Mediate, Doug Labelle, and Robert Garrigus - were each 1 over.

Easiest hole? It was the 528-yard, par-5 18th. It played to a field average of 4.543 and yielded a whopping 170 birdies and 18 eagles. Just don't relay these numbers to Arron Oberholser, who parred it four straight days, crucial birdie chances squandered in a week when he wound up just two behind the winner.

Four players had an eagle and three birdies at the 18th (Ryan Moore, Rod Pampling, Pernice, and Vaughn Taylor), while three others birdied it all four days (Charles Howell, John Mallinger, and Beem).

Beem was 8 under on Nos. 16-18, while Pernice was 7 under.

Only two players recorded more than one birdie at the demanding par-3 11th: Will MacKenzie and Henrik Stenson.

How tough is that hole? Of the top eight names on the leaderboard at the end, only Oberholser managed a birdie at the 11th.

Pampling had an eagle and three birdies at the par-5 second, while Phil Mickelson, Aaron Baddeley, and John Senden each birdied it all four days.

Kevin Stadler's second round had nice bookends - a birdie at the par-5 second and an eagle at the 18th. In between, however, the reading was ugly: 12 over on 15 holes. No surprise, he missed the cut.

And my favorite number was 1. As in Mickelson's final line for 72 holes: 1 bogey, 1 double bogey, and 1 triple bogey.

High numbers
The good news? Nancy Lopez broke 80 in an LPGA Tour event last weekend. The bad news? It doesn't quite wipe away the memory of her shooting 91 a one week earlier. Alas, the comeback for the 50-year-old icon has been painfully tough to watch - six tournaments, six missed cuts, and in nine of the 12 rounds she's been 80 or higher, with her best score a 78.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com. Material from personal interviews, wire services, and other beat writers was used in this report.